Healthier Kids: School programs improve eating patterns

David Lassman/The Post-Standard/2011
WEBSTER ELEMENTARY School chef Cheryl Rubado removes a tray of burgers from the oven in this July 2011 file photo. The authors of today’s commentary say there are many ways schools can play a key role in reversing the obesity trend and reinforce healthy eating behaviors

By Danielle Nierenberg
and Sophie Wenzlau

It’s almost time for kids to go back to school. But for many children in Syracuse, this means a return to terribly unhealthy school lunches — fried chicken, pizza pockets, corn dogs and desserts loaded with high fructose corn syrup — that jeopardize the health and well-being of America’s next generation.

Unfortunately, Syracuse gets a bad grade for childhood obesity and malnutrition. In New York, 10 to 15 percent of low-income children ages 2 to 4 are obese. In Syracuse and Western New York the range is higher, from 15 to 20 percent. It is unlikely that an overweight child will slim down by the time he or she reaches adulthood — 80 percent of children who are obese between the ages of 10 and 15 remain obese at age 25. Children who eat poorly are at greater risk of developing osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and liver problems later in life.

Fortunately, schools can play a key role to reverse this trend and reinforce healthy eating behaviors. By emphasizing hands-on nutrition education, such as school garden projects and classroom cooking demonstrations, and by providing fresh, local fruits and vegetables in cafeterias, schools can encourage students to improve their diets.

Several school districts in New York, the Syracuse City School District among them, are joining the national Farm to School movement, which connects schools to local farms with the purpose of serving healthy, organic meals in cafeterias. Kids benefit from the fresh, nutritious and tasty food, and the state economy benefits from expanding local food networks. By increasing the demand for agricultural products grown directly for human consumption, the Farm to School initiative has the potential to create billions in food sales that would benefit not only students, but also New York farmers, businesses and consumers.

Numerous programs are making food healthier for kids in Syracuse. Excellus BlueCross BlueShield and the Syracuse City School District are funding Hillside Work-Scholarship Connection, which is committed to raising healthy, food-educated students. Not only does the program help promote local and nutritionally balanced meals, it also uses a community garden — where kids can get their hands dirty growing food — to teach children about the connection between their everyday choices and the health of their bodies, the community and the environment. Furthermore, food from these gardens is donated to a local food bank that distributes the produce to families in need.

Unequal access to healthy foods is also a serious issue in Syracuse — obesity disproportionately affects poor families who can afford only cheap, processed foods. Low-income families of color in Syracuse are more likely to be food insecure than their affluent counterparts. Furthermore, they are more likely to live in food deserts (places where access to healthy and affordable food is limited, like the South Side).

Thankfully, a number of organizations are helping low-income children gain access to healthy foods and live healthier lifestyles — organizations like Farm to School Syracuse and Syracuse Grows — and can serve as models for the development of a just, healthy and sustainable food system in Syracuse. Syracuse Grows, which targets the city’s low-income refugee population, enables residents to participate in community gardening. They are also invited to canning and pickling workshops as well as potluck feasts.

And at Kisoga Secondary School in Kampala, Uganda, students are being taught to manage a sustainable school garden that produces fresh fruits and vegetables. Food from the garden, served at lunch, has significantly decreased child malnutrition in the village. This is just one of many innovations highlighted by the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet project and the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition in the new book “Eating Planet: Challenge for Mankind and the Planet,” which examines the effects of individual eating habits on health and the environment.

Child obesity and malnutrition are crippling problems for schoolchildren in Syracuse, Africa and elsewhere in the world. Innovative school food programs — like those of Farm to School and Uganda’s Kisoga Secondary School — are making children healthier. Syracuse needs more school programs that emphasize nutrition education, hands-on gardening and organic, scratch-made, nutritious, locally sourced meals. Such programs can support healthy behavioral changes in children that can last a lifetime.

Danielle Nierenberg is project director of the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet project (www.NourishingthePlanet.org), based in Washington, D.C., which evaluates environmentally sustainable solutions to alleviate hunger and poverty. Sophie Wenzlau is a research assistant with Nourishing the Planet.